A Life Spent Reading

Subtitled “The World in the Age of Terrorism”, this book is a collection of essays and diary entries by New York Times Foreign Correspondent Thomas L. Friedman. When you’ve won the Pulitzer Prize three times, you deserve to have people listen to what you have to say. But I wonder about that subtitle. If it were me, I would change it to “The Age When Terrorism Finally Came to America”. After all, the world at large has been dealing with the issue for quite some time now.

Still, Friedman certainly doesn’t lack for global experience or a comprehensive world-view. In his previous (excellent) book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, he demonstrated convincingly that he knows absolutely everyone who is anyone of political significance — in any country. And in Longitudes and Attitudes he puts a long-standing interest in the Middle East to good use. Few other American journalists can claim to have the same insight into the region.

And what is this insight? To me, the most significant point he makes is this: amid all the controversy and criticism about whether America should be in the Middle East, supporting Israel and all that, Friedman, alone among the journalists I’ve read, is asking a different question: what are the Arab leaders doing to improve their region? What policy are they formulating that will enable their countries to solve the problems that face them? The answer is: apparently, not much. Friedman obviously thinks that, while Israel is clearly a large issue, there are other equally large ones. People on both sides of the Atlantic have spread a lot of ink debating whether America’s support of Israel somehow justified the 9/11 attacks, but no one seems to be asking about anything else. What are middle eastern governments doing to improve their schools? Their health-care? Their political processes?

Friedman is also a very good writer. He has a knack for talking about large issues in a friendly and unpretentious manner, for boiling the complex down to a level where it’s understandable to non-specialists, and for making odd, punning connections that illustrate his points. (He describes Putin’s plan for Russia as going “from Das Kapital to DOScapital”.) And the tough questions he asks are not exclusively aimed abroad. Why, for example, has America failed to really make an effort to explain itself to the Middle East – in Arabic? It seems a ridiculous question to ask, but maybe that’s why no one else with Friedman’s stature is asking it.

Despite the wealth of insight and nice writing, I doubt that I’m going to finish this book. It’s been gathering dust now for several months, and I have absolutely no desire to get back to it. I’m usually interested in most anything that’s intelligent and well-presented…but you know what? I’m sick to death of hearing about the Middle East. We should’ve been out of there a long time ago, it’s not our problem, and if America has to pay more for oil, well, it’s the price of our having been complacent and not developing alternative fuel sources decades ago.

I like Thomas Friedman; he’s an important writer and often makes connections that no one else really sees. But I’ll wait for his next book. Hopefully, it will be on something that hasn’t been beaten to death in the news for the past half a decade.